Jeff Nielsen had posted regarding the tuba mouthpiece and someone
had attributed it to Bill Klinger.  I thought I should set the record
straight.

The group performing at the Mid-Am organ rally that had the tuba was
from Kansas City, Missouri, and Topeka, Kansas.  We call ourselves
the "NTR Band" for "No Talent Required."  Collectively, we have an
accordion, concertina, "Metallophon," drums and the tuba, all made by
Andreas Watterott in Germany, http://www.ziehorgel.com/ 

In addition, we have an OSI 20er monkey organ that was converted to
MIDI control by Bill Klinger which, with the addition of a separate
receiver/transmitter made by Watterott, can play along with the other
Watterott instruments.

Last, but certainly not least among the connected instruments, we have
a Hofbauer 37er street organ which has had a Watterott receiver built
into it so that it can play either from the Hofbauer Microbox cartridges
or by receiving from one of the Watterott transmitters.  We also travel
with a home-built John Smith Universal 20/26er and a Raffin R31/124,
but those organs don't play electronically, yet.

The tuba receiver watches for a limited range of bass notes to come
across the wireless MIDI connection and, if it finds one of them, it
plays by vibrating a membrane at the correct frequency to produce that
tone (providing someone is blowing air through the mouthpiece).  It
requires only a stream of air.

The person "playing" the tuba is only pushing air through the tube.
They do not buzz their lips or do anything else such as fingering
valves.  When I have "played" it, I simply maintain a gentle pressure
of air at all times in the mouthpiece and it places nicely when the
air is needed.  In fact, fingering the valves has no effect on the tome
being produced because it is of the precise frequency to generate the
correct tone.

I have also used the mouthpiece on a baritone horn and a trombone.
They play with it just fine as well, although not as well as the tuba
since they are not really made to play notes in that frequency range.

All of the instruments are based on comparable, but slightly different
scales.  The accordion has a 40-note scale, the Hofbauer a 37-note, the
concertinas and the OSI are at 20 notes, but not necessarily the same
20 notes.  For example, the OSI and concertina scales are the same
intervals, but the OSI starts on an F and the concertina on a G.  When
playing together, each instrument simply plays what it has and ignores
the other notes.

Listening to any one of them may sound a little odd, but collectively
they produce a good sound that has been well received at the rallies we
have attended the last couple of years.  Any of the human "played"
instruments, except the tuba, can be set to be the leader with the
others all in receive mode.

I exchanged notes with Andreas Watterott, the original maker of the
tuba mouthpiece before sending this post and confirmed that he does
_not_ make the tuba mouthpieces any longer.  He currently offers a line
of accordions, concertinas and accessories.  There are quite a few of
his instruments in the USA.  At the COAA rally in Holland, Michigan,
there were two accordions, another 4-6 concertinas, and of course the
tuba. :-)

I know of several crank organs made by Christian Wittmann in Austria
that have also incorporated the Watterott wireless system.

At the Mid-Am rally, at one point Carl Cavitt and his family joined
us with his OSI organ (equipped with a Watterott receiver) and
concertina and then B Bronson joined in as well as another concertina,
which gave us three organs, three concertinas, two accordions, drums,
two xylophones, and the now infamous tuba.  B took the lead as the
controlling instrument on some numbers and a few of his arrangements
really gave the tuba a workout.

I hope that satisfies the curiosity about the tuba MIDI mouthpiece and
unfortunately the only real answer as to where to get one would seem to
be to find someone that bought one when they were being made and try to
buy it.  I did see one a few months ago on German eBay.

A couple of short clips of the NTR Band in action at the Lake Winnie
COAA rally (which may also include guests with their compatible
instruments) are available on YouTube:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx4KM4j_ihU  [tuba solo at 1:09]
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaLEPjTmPhc 

Deane Shepard
Kansas City, Missouri